What you will learn

The step by step solution oriented content layout that will seriously help skyrocket your revenues.

The tools you can use to make each step more efficient.

The real key to passive income with content.

Ah, the good old days of article networks. I remember, we used to rank clients within 2 weeks for crazy keywords and triple their traffic overnight.

There was no penguin, no link penalty, it was EASY. Seriously, if only I knew…

If I knew what I know now back then, I’d probably have a pool of coins like uncle scrooge and not be writing this post right now (sorry :().

We were so good at ranking stuff we outranked nascar.com for the keyword NASCAR during the entire season with one of our clients. That keyword alone was responsible for tens of thousands of hits per day.

​Clients were thrilled to see the blue line go up right, and we were super proud (and cocky).

But here’s the kicker, what we were doing was actually resulting in very little revenue. Why ? Because landing pages and content was the least of our worries. Customers ? Who’s that ?

Our only focus was on ranking and getting more traffic. No matter what…

“You can’t pay your bills in unique visitors”

But here’s one thing I’ve said a few times but I think deserves to be repeated: You can’t pay your bills in unique visits, backlinks or social shares. At the end of the day, one of the main reasons we do online business is to generate income.

To do that, you need to not just drive traffic to your pages, but also convince your visitors to take action and buy. Sure, you could make some money from Adsense and other ad networks, but the real money is in making sales.​

And let’s be honest, this is where most “SEO’s” and online marketing experts drop the ball.​

Making sales is a very different skill set and challenge ​and most organic traffic people never get to worry about that. Or they try to solve the lack of sales with a need for more traffic.

That’s why I love reading PPC blogs and learning from paid traffic guys. They’re not trying to spend more on traffic, they’re trying to get more out of what they already have.

And that’s exactly the attitude you should have as an authority site owner. You can drive significant income from a fairly low amount of visitors if you do the right thing with your traffic.

The Solution Oriented Content

Nowadays, consumers are starting to buy very differently. They don’t just take the word of their local store’s salesman when they make a purchase anymore.

They have the power of the internet at their fingertips to look for trustable expert advice without the need to talk to anyone (especially not a biased sales person).​

As an online authority, your incentives are different.

Sure, making a sale is great but with affiliate programs being so widespread now, you can give genuine advice and help people pick the true best solution for themselves while getting paid.

No matter what they buy.

Plus, this is scalable as you’re using content that can be consumed again and again to solve the same problem many people may face.

Your goal really is to take people from wherever they are to the point where they make a purchase decision (and I’m about to show you how in a minute).

You have the opportunity to be that neutral 3rd party people rely on to make decisions and take your cut of every sale you generate without having to handle customer service or one on one communication.​

Obviously, if you want to build this for the long term (which we advise), you should always stay true to yourself and advise the best solution to your audience (not necessarily the one that pays the most).​

Our results using this kind of content

The reason we’re talking about it is because we’ve used that kind of content on Authority Hacker already despite the fact that our SEO traffic is still tiny (we’re barely 6 months old).

Because we showed people we were actual users and what was possible with that piece of software. We took the time to educate without pressuring the sale. That lead 392 people to make a purchase earning us $15,130.70​

Am I saying that to brag ? Nope.

I don’t even think it’s an incredible figure but given the low traffic on this site, this proves the concept. Plus, all the traffic to these pages was generated via email.

This means that if we manage to rank these pages on Google, we’ll be able to generate a decent passive income using both the autoresponder and organic traffic from this content.

Do you want to do the same for your site ?

Then keep reading.​

​Keyword types for solution oriented content

Since I know you guys worry about keywords, yes, keywords are important for this kind of content but it doesn’t mean all the traffic needs to be SEO. Your email list is a massive asset when it comes to pushing this kind of content.

​Here is a list of keyword types that work well with this kind of content:

The 7 Steps Of A High Converting Solution Oriented Blog Post

How to use this guide

​Brainstorm a product you could promote on your existing or future site (it needs to be something you stand by).

Read each step then click on the example link to understand how this tactic was used in a real life situation.

If you can’t find the corresponding tactic on the example post, read the box again until you find it.

Write the associated part of the post for it

When you’re done, post a link to it in the comment section for feedback ;).

Obviously, all the steps are not necessary every single time but try to follow this layout as closely as possible.

#1 – TELL A STORY & QUALIFY YOURSELF

Goals

​Prove your legitimacy

Show yourself to increase trust

Build report

Tease

Tools

Story telling

Open loops

Humor / Entertainment

Emotional appeal

While most people start their content by putting strong CTA’s to the offer they’re promoting or their product. I think it’s the wrong way to go. What you want to do initially is separate yourself from all the crap pages people will already have consulted on the topic.

Your goal is to both prove you’re a legit source of information when it comes to solving that issue and to make the reader identify with you using humor and story telling. I even know people putting personal pictures to get people to relate to them.

You really want to get warm & fuzzy here and share your personal view of things, frustrations and hopes.

#2 – EMPHASISE & AMPLIFY THE PROBLEM

Goals

Increase the discomfort caused by the problem to the point where the reader will take action

Prove that if they do nothing, the problem will only get worse

Tools

Authority quotes

Real life “horror stories”

Official statistics & graphs

Emotional appeal

Future visualisation

Logical & emotional arguments.

Now that you’ve qualified yourself and appear as genuine to your reader, it’s time to rub salt in the wound.

If you want your reader to take action, you need to exacerbate the pain caused by the issue you’re talking about and you need to make them understand that today is the best day to take action and fix it (under your supervision).

​If you don’t go through this, most people will stay passive, consume your content and not take action (buy the product). It’s not good for you (you don’t get paid) and it’s not good for them (they don’t solve their problem).

Just make sure that the solutions you are going to recommend are actually helpful to your readers.

#3 – ELICIT THE “IDEAL” THEORITICAL SOLUTION

Goals

Relieve the “pressure” from the previous step and associate it with a potential solution.

Tools

Ideal feature lists

Crunchy details and anecdotes.

Visualisation

Retorical questions

This step is where many people mess up. They start selling the solution already. That’s not what this step is for. This step is here to break down the anatomy of what the absolute perfect solution would be.

What are the most important features should your reader be looking for ?

What are the special little things most people overlook but they shouldn’t?

Is there a checklist of things to go through before going forward with adopting the perfect solution ?

These are the things you want to go through in this phase. You want your prospect to say yes, this is what I need without being sold anything yet. It makes the whole thing a lot less pushy and threatening.

But subconsciously, you’re getting your prospects to already say yes to the solution you’re about to present them later in a non pressured environment. Now that’s gold.​

You basically want to finish that part with something that says “If only something like that existed, that problem would be gone for good”​.

#5 – CASE STUDY BEFORE & AFTER

Goals

Show the difference between before and after the solution implementation

Get people to project themselves implementing the solution

Present the product you endorse

Tools

Proof pictures & videos

Story telling

In text links to the product

Ideally this would be your experience and how you implemented the solution to fix the problem for yourself.

You really want to give the details and the personal experience you went through, the little details, the quirks, what went wrong and importantly the wins you experienced.​

This both gives you credibility for being able to advise on solving the problem and gives an idea of the difference the solution you’re advising to implement can make to someone in real life.

Any prop you can use, screenshots, photos, stats are big bonuses and help you stand out from the crowd of websites that will never have their hands on the product they recommend and look genuine to your readers.

This step is the occasion to both grow the trust your readers have in you and in the solution you’re telling them to buy. You may start introducing in text contextual links to the solution/product at this phase (and not before).​

#6 – STEP HOW TO GUIDE TO IMPLEMENTATION

Goals

Tools

Step by step instructions

Demo videos

Explainer graphic

PDF’s & Handouts

Now you’ve teased them enough, they’re ready to take action. It’s time to give them the no brainer step by step plan to going from where they are now to the point where you got by doing the same thing.

Be very practical, implement the solution in real life and film it if possible, you can then post the video on youtube and generate extra traffic and revenue from it. Plus, you can embed it on your post for extra experience and credibility.

As you detail the steps to take, of course, link to the products & solutions you’re trying to sell each time you mention them. Usually this is where people are already sold and click through to buy without thinking twice.​

Don’t offer alternatives or debates here. Only show them the products you recommend for this tutorial.​

#7 – RE EMPHASISE THE PROBLEM AND ADD A FINAL CTA

Goals

Tools

CTA Buttons

Visualisation

Most readers will have already clicked on your solution link at this point but if they didn’t, this step should make them do so.

This is when you can be a little less subtle about things and use a big call to action button like the one you see bellow this box. See how big it is ? Don’t go any smaller (I recommend Thrive content builder for these and all the fancy formatting you’ve seen in this post).

​Use this occasion to summarise everything you’ve talked about and rub some more salt on the wounds to push people to really take action before delivering your final call to action.

Your call to action should be the last thing on that post so there’s no confusion possible.

​Conclusion

Here you have it, my complete guide to selling with solution based blog posts.

If you build your posts that way, your posts will not only have pages that actually generate income, you’ll have pages that can rock Google’s world. Think about it for a second. With this kind of content you get:

A page with a ton of content (completing each step requires a fair amount of words)

A page you can link build through ego bait, video and image posting around the web etc

Keyword rich content because you talk in length about the issue, problem and solution.

Very good user metrics, low bounce rate, social shares etc.

Actually, I’ve done that for my Buzzstream review & outreach link building tutorial. The result ? The post shot straight to #1 on Google for it’s keyword because it was such a content heavy piece and outdid the competition by​ a large margin. No links needed here.

Do you have any question or suggestion to improve this process ? Let me know in the comment section!​

All the tactics are really useful and practical. SEOs should understand the importance of content and on-page factors for ranking well in Google rather than just link building. The more user friendly and engaging content is, the more Google will push you up in the SERPS.

Thanks for that! The point as well is it’s not just about ranking, it’s about converting the traffic once you get it. Otherwise what’s the point of getting traffic in the first place ? It’s something a lot of people don’t think about enough which leads them to use filler/boring content.

I like the unique way you approach the internet. By the way thanks for all your advice you gave me a few months back. SA mom blogs is doing well and we are even organising some meet ups and even the first SA mom blogging conference next year!Will keep in touch and see how it goes. Going through the results of my second (brands) survey and figuring it all out.

Gael, good points and often forgotten. Like you say… the closer we can match a post about a problem to the actual solution the smaller the leap the reader has to take from having the problem to the solution. Lots of us have built sites because of the potential traffic only to realize the traffic is un-monetizable…the focus you put on posts with a solution is great!

I read your post twice, because you mention exactly what i like to achieve….selling products on the net.
I’ve two adsense sites that pay quit good. But my goal is a real internet business so i’ve some more time for my kids.

There for i create washingmachine website. I want to give real good advise visitors to buy the best machine for their situation.

Is your methode (mentioned in your blogpost) also working for washingmachines?
Unfortenately i’m not creative enough than write reviews with affiliate links….i think that is not gonna work.

Can you help me a little bit with good advise?
Are washingmachines good products to sell online as affiliate?
How would you start such washingmachine articles?

Yep, this works for anything. What I’d suggest is finding a way to get physical access to the machines (warehouse etc or even talking to the brands) and shooting videos/pictures at the warehouse where you can show people stuff, not just write about it. For affiliation I guess Amazon would work quite well in that case.

Just go above and beyond compared to the competition, I’m not saying that will make you rank much higher in Google but it will give you the edge in conversions.

Great tips on the content upgrades and formatting. I’ve also noticed that people tend to stay longer and click more when the site looks good and well designed.

I’m currently looking into getting adsense to supplement my site’s earnings. Does a site using YouTube videos on some posts violate the TOS of adsense. I’ve read some people get denied from adsense and others banned because they had YouTube videos.

Would you know what the rule on having YouTube videos are to apply and use Adsense, and is it a violation of their TOS?

The quality of this content speaks for itself, and willingness to serve others shine through. This is why I’m hopeful for this generation with all those aspiring entrepreneurs out there looking to contribute to the world in a strategical manner.